Pear Rocket Fuel??

[seth8530]

I would not recommend vacuum degassing the mead especially if you intend on bulk aging it. Mainly because I believe that a constant ( albeit small) stream of CO2 might help prevent against oxidation. If you were to degas it then bulk age you would not have this on your side.... Will this make a difference in the end? I am not sure, however it seems to me it can only help. I would recommend bulk aging until it is degassed and ready to bottle or perhaps you could degas right before you bottle?

Also, be aware that it is possible for fermentation to pick back up.

 

[GTS]

Time for an update. I think it was last December when I last posted anything on this thread. The pear melomel has held at an SG of 1.006 (15% abv), and appears to be completely degassed. I did splash rack it back in December, but did not vacuum degas. Did a few bench trials to determine the amount of sweetening that was required to make everyone happy. A final gravity of 1.020 seemed to be the favorite, but I will probably back that off to 1.015 as they always seem to sweeten a little more in the bottle.

I also did a few trials with a cyser I started last March. This one finished at 0.997 which would give it an abv of 16.7%. Once again, 1.020 was the favorite of all my testers. In fact, it really smoothed out the hotness of the high alcohol content and was quite pleasant to drink.